The Mop Crew! The Guys That Struggled To Get The Gym Floor Clean!

Do You Struggle? This should be a great week for most folks, but I am getting a sense that many of us are struggling, even with a short week.  This morning in my devotions, I read this Scripture and thought that it might encourage and grow some of us!  I hope you find it as motivating as I did.  ”For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”  2 Timothy 1:7

Two Things To Consider! Look at what God has given us and look at what He has not given us.

What God Has Not Given Us! Let’s first take a look at what He has not given us:  He has not given us a “spirit of timidity”  The Bible teaches that we were created in God’s image.  God did not create us to be weak, afraid or powerless.  God created us to be powerful, loving and disciplined!  God did not give you weakness, He gave you strength.  Whatever you have to face today – God has given you the power to overcome it!  Live in and thrive through that power!

What God Has Given Us! God has given us power, love and discipline.  You were created in the image of God.  Who or what can you think of that is more powerful than God?  We have the power of God flowing to and through our lives.  Don’t take His power for granted and don’t dare waste it!  God has given us love.  He loved us before we could ever love Him.  God is love and His love should flow to and through our lives.  Open your life to God’s love and share and show that love everywhere you go.  God has given us discipline.  Discipline is what allows us to grow and develop all that God has given us.  Don’t run away from discipline, run into it and you will discover a strength that you only dreamed existed!

You Are Special! You are special and God proves just how special you are with what He has and has not given you.  Live in the power of that reality today and enjoy the victory that God has provided!

A Very Good Word! This morning in my devotion time – these two verses really impacted me!  11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:10-11

Get Away From That Stuff! Verse 11 begins by telling us to “flee from these things, you man of God!”  We have to make a choice in this life – Who or what are we going to pursue?  When it says to flee from these things, it is talking about the wasted arguments for dominance, pursuit of riches and personal satisfaction that is talked about in the earlier verses.  We can pursue self or God.  Pursue self and you will lose yourself!  Pursue God and you will find yourself and so much more!

How To Pursue God! If you want to pursue God, then you must chase after the stuff of God!  We have been given a list to get us started!  (righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.) Impressive list!  Think about how your life would change if these were the things that you put your energy into pursuing!

It’s Not Easy! We can’t pursue God without a fight and our fight is not with Him, but with the world and often times ourselves!  We need to “take hold of our eternal life” and appreciate it for all of the amazing gift that it is!

We Can Do This! Nobody ever said that the Christian life would be easy, but it can be full of blessing – if we will take the time to live in surrender to Jesus.

Stressed! I talk with a lot of people who seem to really be stressed.  People have stress and struggle coming from just about every angle.  I am not sure that there is a sure-fire way to avoid stress, but I do know that we can avoid staying stressed.  Just because you are stressed, it does not mean that you have to camp out there.  In fact, one of the best ways to get unstressed is to take a break from your stress.

A Break From Stress! To take a break from your stress, you have to figure out where the stress is coming from.  What is causing stress in your life?  Now that you know what it is or where it is coming from – just step away from it and take a break.  It may be five minutes or it could be a few days.  The time is not really the issue.  What you do during this break is what really matters!

Game Plan! Two things need to happen during your break!  You need to talk and you need to listen!  Talk to God and tell Him what is going on.  He already knows, but it will make you feel better to get it out.  Next – Listen!  Really listen for God’s voice and direction!  You will know that you are hearing Him, when you feel your stress disappearing and being replaced with peace.

Give it a try – go ahead and take a break!

"BAM!"

I hate days like today! They start out good and you feel like you are on your way to a great day and then you have an encounter with a person that just seems to really mess everything up.  Have you ever noticed that the people who seem to mess up your day the most are the people who you care about and love the most?

Today was one of those days! I was having a great day.  Just trucking along, doing what I do, serving the Lord, enjoying the journey and then “BAM!”  Out of nowhere, it hits like a ton of bricks!  A person walks into my life, drops a hand grenade and walks out.  It had absolutely nothing to do with me.  This person was just unhappy and needed to share the misery! “Thanks for the blessing!”

Here are a few things that the Spirit is teaching me, now that I have had a little time to digest it.

People are just people! Profound and deep – right!  Reality is that people are people and people will let you down.  It is just a fact of life that people will fall short of your expectations.  The truth is:  I fall short of my own expectations!

Everyone is imperfect! I am not sure why is shakes us up when people let us down.  I know that people are imperfect.  I know this because I am a “people” and I am imperfect.  I guess when I become perfect, then I can expect others to be perfect.  Until then, we will just have to learn to make it the best that we can.

Intention is never enough! Most of the time we have the best of intentions, but we come up short in the fulfillment and follow through department.  Remember:  ”Intentions make good paving material for the road to hell!”

We need a Savior! Imperfect people need a perfect Savior!  I need a Savior!  Jesus is my Savior and my friend.  He gives me forgiveness that I do not deserve and restoration that I cannot earn!  Jesus fills me and fulfills me.  I can always count on Him!  Now, I am already feeling a little better.  How about you?

Ouch! That Hurts!

This Morning! I was spending a little time in the book of James this morning.  James is one of those books in the Bible where almost every verse just nails me and the work that I need to allow God to do in and through my life.  I can convince myself that I am doing pretty good spiritually and then read James and realize that I have much work to do in the spiritual arena!

Small And Powerful! Take for example this little verse located in James 1:26  “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”  ”OUCH!”  Can I say it again?  ”OUCH!”  Can we say it together?  ”OUCH!”

A Few Quick Thoughts: It does not really matter what you think!  Religion can be good or bad – you make the choice with the way that you live your life!  If your Religion does not enable and strengthen you to control your tongue, then your religion is worthless!  It is possible to deceive your own heart!

Think ABout It! I challenge us all to think about it and then do something about it.  I’ve got work to do – how about you?  Press On!

Serving Others Is A Great Way To Serve God!

I want to be an extension of God! I want to be able to share Him and the difference that He can make with others.  I am not God and I can never be God, but I can share Him and the difference that He has made in my life.  God has so challenged and changed my life, that I want to share that challenge and change with others.  He really does make a difference today and in eternity!

I am not in control! That is hard to admit.  Sometimes I think that I would like to be in control, but it really does not matter how much I want to be in control or how in control I think I might be, the truth is:  I am not in control!  I have a set amount of time, the same as everybody else, but I never seem to have enough.  I have some amazing talents that God has blessed me with, but I fail to use them to their full potential.  God has given me many treasures in my life and I have taken way to many of them for granted by wasting when I should have been sharing.

I accept His calling to join Him in His Kingdom’s work! I am willing to do whatever He ask, whenever He ask, however He might ask!  My new question for God:  ”How may I serve you today?”

Hope Is Restless - But Has A Great Spirit!

Do you ever have a “restless spirit?” You know – It’s that feeling that there is something just not quiet right.  You can’t always identify the reason or where it is coming from, but you have a sense somewhere deep inside that something is just not right.

What Do You Do? When I get a restless spirit, then I can’t rest until I hear from God.  When I get a restless spirit, I have to hear from God, so that I can move on.  When I get a restless spirit, then I know that God is trying to tell me something and I need to listen close, so I look, listen and lean!  I look in His Word, listen for His voice and lean in His direction!

Don’t ignore your restless spirit! Pay attention to what you are not hearing or feeling, so that you can and will hear from God.  A restless spirit is not a bad thing, it is actually a good thing, because it helps you to get your focus where it needs to be if you are paying attention and that is off of self and onto the things of God.

Being Thankful! I am learning to be thankful for a restful spirit by learning to respond to it in the right way, the way that God intends – with an open heart, mind and attitude and a willingness to be led by whatever God shows me!

Thankful For Grace - My Daughter & God's!

Are you a thankful person? I like to think that I am thankful, but I am not sure that my conversation and thoughts always prove that to be true.  In fact, if you and I pay attention during our prayers, we will notice that our prayers of thanksgiving quickly turn into prayers of request.

We know how to do it! We start out saying thank you to God and quickly move into the area of trying to move God to move on our behalf.  Between now and thanksgiving, I am going to be working on genuinely being more thankful and I want to invite you to join me.

Take some time this week to listen to your conversations and prayers. Ask yourself this question:  Am I really thankful?  If we are really thankful, then we and others will hear it, in and through our conversations.

I like to think that I am a pretty good guy. I am a Christian.  I love Jesus and I am thankful for the relationship that I have with Him.  He really has changed my life and I know that my eternity is safe in His hands.  I love God and I love people and I really do enjoy serving them both.  I am a faithful husband, a very involved dad and a committed friend.  I work pretty hard to be a good guy, but being a good guy is not enough!

I was a sinner, but God’s grace changed that! I still mess up!  I still miss the mark!  I still don’t measure up!  In fact, I don’t even come close.  I often fail to do the right thing and I don’t even realize that I am failing.  I sometimes do the wrong thing and hate to admit it.  I don’t mind admitting this – in fact it is very freeing when you realize it, admit and seek God’s forgiveness and restoration.  Because of God’s grace, I get to make the choice to do the right thing.  I want to make that choice more consistently and in more areas of my life.

I’ve got a lot of work to do. God is showing me areas of my life that I have neglected.  While I have paid attention to some areas and they are growing and beautiful, there are some areas that I just haven’t given the attention that they deserve.  God is opening my eyes to these areas and I am working to make them right for Him.

Let’s face it – not a one of us is perfect! What areas of your life do you need to pay some attention?  Trust me – they are there – realize it or not!  Ask God to reveal to you the things that are hard to see and you will find Him ready to grow you in ways that you had never even given a thought!

I Love The Cool Weather!

It was a rough, but good night! Last night I get up as I do on most Wednesday nights to receive prayer request and praise reports and we are having a very good time of praising God and sharing our concern for loved ones and friends.  We had a very good group of people who showed up last night and everyone seemed to be in a really good mood.  I noticed as I was sharing that everyone seemed to be paying extra special attention to me.  I did not think much of it, because I am the Pastor and I am standing in front of all of them.

Things were shaping up and looking good! After a nice time of sharing, I prayed a very beautiful and serious prayer.  I took time to acknowledge God’s holiness, thank Him for His faithfulness, ask for His forgiveness and plead for His interaction on behalf of all of the request that had been mentioned.  It was a very nice time of prayer!  As I finished praying and walked to the side for the music to begin, one of my members walked over to hand me a note.  I opened the note and it said “ZIPPER?”  As I made my way to the back sure enough – I was having a “wardrobe-malfunction!”  I immediately took care of the problem and after the singing stepped back up to deliver the Word.  I thought it best to say nothing of the zipper incident.  The Word was powerful and spoke to all of us and I think we left church challenged in more ways than one.

At Home! Later when I got home and was telling my wife about the incident, she quickly spoke up and said “oh yeah – I heard all about it from” and began to share a list of names.  She then reached over and turned down the waste of my khakis and said “and you are wearing your red underwear!”  I’ve thought a lot about this episode through the night and I only have one thing left to say:  ”I love Christmas!”